There is no doubt about the importance of multi-country studies of entrepreneurial activity in enabling the comparison and replication of research and generating meaningful contributions to scholarship, practice and policy. This international comparison perspective is especially important when processes in each single economy are analysed against the broader global, European or regional environment. Since entrepreneurship is a complex social phenomenon, several dependencies can be understood only with comprehensive research that includes continuous positioning of national entrepreneurship in the European and global perspectives. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is the largest and most complex research project in the field of entrepreneurship (and likely in the field of social sciences in general) in the world. Today, it is possible to compare data for more than 100 countries not only in the field of early-stage entrepreneurial activity but also in areas such as general attitudes of the adult population towards entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial intentions, fear of failure and business opportunity recognition. Therefore, it was a rational decision to base the scientific monograph “Danube Region Entrepreneurship Observatory: Diversity and Potential” on GEM data. After a short introductory chapter, in the chapters that follow we analyse the entrepreneurial profiles of Danube region countries and entrepreneurial intentions in the region and investigate the competition and aspirations of early-stage entrepreneurs in these countries. This is the first publication in a series of annual scientific monographs observing Danube Region entrepreneurship. It is intended to strengthen the understanding of what influences entrepreneurs and enterprises/organisations and creates differences among the Danube Region countries in innovativeness and entrepreneurship and to identify tools and concepts to conduct appropriate evidence-based policy. We want to contribute to efficiency improvements in the entrepreneurship pipeline in Danube Region countries, building up better entrepreneurship ecosystems in the region and reinforcing cooperation among entrepreneurship researchers and educators.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 12023324This contribution aims to broaden our understanding of factors affecting innovativeness of successors in family businesses in transition economies. In-depth literature review was conducted and three main constructs were identified as having considerable impact on successors’ innovativeness and that are: entrepreneurialism, knowledge transfer and creation, and social capital. We applied a multiple-case study approach and the main research findings of ten cases of Slovenian family businesses are discussed. We developed six propositions that provide a basis for further empirical testing of factor influencing successors’ innovativeness and innovation ability of family businesses in transition economies.
F.25 Development of new organisational structures and managerial solutions
COBISS.SI-ID: 513363586»Entrepreneurship Support for the Unemployed in Slovenia« has been a collaborative project between the Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Programme of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion of the European Commission, with the co-operation of the Slovenian Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. It is part of a multi-year programme of work on inclusive entrepreneurship, undertaken by the LEED Programme of the OECD and DG Employment of the European Commission. The project is a rapid assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of entrepreneurship support for the unemployed in Slovenia. It is part of a series of joint OECD-European Commission review projects that examine inclusive entrepreneurship policies and programmes for specific target groups in selected EU countries. This report presents a brief overview of current entrepreneurship support for the unemployed in Slovenia and provides an assessment of the key strengths and weaknesses of current and planned offerings in the areas of entrepreneurship skills, access to finance and the regulatory and institutional environment. It also makes recommendations for improvement under each area. There are several strong elements in the entrepreneurship support system for the unemployed. First, specialised entrepreneurship training is available to unemployed people who are interested in business creation and self-employment. In addition, even more support is available to highly-educated, unemployed youth. They can access several programmes that provide training, coaching and mentoring. Underlying this targeted support, the national government has made strides in simplifying the business environment through the development of online information portals and streamlining regulations. Despite the availability of entrepreneurship training for the unemployed, especially for highly-educated youth, there are some gaps and areas for improvement in the entrepreneurship support system. First, there is a gap in entrepreneurship training offerings for the less educated unemployed, early school leavers and core-age unemployed people (i.e. 25 to 49 years old), who make up the bulk of the unemployed population. The most significant gap is the absence of financial supports that support the unemployed in business creation. Another area for improvement is that information on start-up financing and potential sources of investment could be strengthen and simplified so that the unemployed can easily access and understand it.
F.02 Acquisition of new scientific knowledge
COBISS.SI-ID: 12077596Members of the program team doc. dr. Katja Crnogaj, prof. dr. Miroslav Rebernik and doc. dr. Barbara Bradač Hojnik, in co-authorship with prof. dr. Doris Gomezelj Omerzel from the Faculty of Management, University of Primorska, in October 2015 received the prestigious Emerald Literati Network Award for Excellence 2015 for their outstanding paper. The article "Building a Model of Researching the Sustainable Entrepreneurship in the Tourism Sector" was at the end of 2014 published in the Kybernetes journal.
E.02 International awards
This paper examines the use of management tools among Slovenian and Croatian employees, with the main focus on linkages between the current use of management tools and patterns of its future use. The authors developed and tested a model for predicting the future use of management tools based on the current use of tools by employees in organizations, underlying assumptions of the theory of planned behavior and the information-perception-behavior link. Descriptive statistics suggest that there are differences in management tools use patterns among Slovenian and Croatian employees. Among the most used tools, employees in both countries significantly and differently use (especially) outsourcing, mission and vision statements, knowledge management, total quality management, and customer segmentation. Using structural equation modelling for testing the proposed relations in the developed model on samples of Slovenian and Croatian employees reveals that the current use of tools plays an important role in predicting the future use of tools in Slovenian organizations, while linkages for the Croatian sample are rather insignificant. More specifically, the current use of management tools has a positive influence on the future use of management tools, while the impact of the current percentage of satisfied users with management tools is very weak. Further, a comparison of results with international data reveals differences in the patterns of management tools use between former catching up countries (studied are two former transition economies) and economies with a longer tradition in the market economy. Based on the current state of management tools use, linkages between their current and future use, and patterns of tools use in high-developed economies, the authors speculate about the future pattern of management tools use in catching up countries based on experiences from high-developed market economies. Those assumptions represent a building block for boosting the use of management tools in organizations in catching up economies, and thus helping those organizations to reduce the gap between them and most developed organizations.
F.25 Development of new organisational structures and managerial solutions
COBISS.SI-ID: 11958556